Sramana Mitra: Talk to me in a bit more granular form what was going on. What kind of web development were you doing? What was the product idea that you were noodling with and then building? Rich...

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Rich Waldron: There was one person who really liked us. The reason was, as a team, there is a clear CTO, a business person, and a product/CEO type. We had an interesting balance of skill sets. We...

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Entrepreneurs are invited to the 491st FREE online 1Mby1M mentoring roundtable on Thursday, June 25, 2020, at 8 a.m. PDT/11 a.m. EDT/5 p.m. CEST/8:30 p.m. India IST. If you are a serious...

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The Covid-19 pandemic has changed consumer behavior in a major way. The change, however, has only started. As we move through the virus-era over the next two years without treatment and without...

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While the global pandemic is definitely hurting some companies, it is also helping cloud-based companies grow significantly. One such player is Paycom (NYSE:PAYC) which is seeing an increase in...

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Sramana Mitra: What happens in 2019? JB Kellogg: We built the third version and released at the end of 2019. We’re excited about that because it truly makes us more of a technology company than we’ve...

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Sramana Mitra: You expect people to be trained at a certain level to be part of your pool that you staff with. What is that qualification that you’re looking for? David Coppins: We employ Registered...

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Horizon Quantum is part of a new crop of startups that focus on building new tools for building software for quantum computers. The Singapore-based company, which is hardware-agnostic but also launched a close partnership with Rigetti Computing in 2018, today announced that it has raised a $3.23 million funding round led by Sequoia Capital India. Previous investors SGInnovate, Abies Ventures, DCVC, Qubit Protocol, Summer Capital and Posa CV also participated.

At its core, Horizon Quantum aims to democratize quantum development. Because there is very little about quantum computing that is intuitive, the company argues, it will take a new set of tools to help today’s developers tackle quantum. What makes Horizon unique is that it takes conventional source code and then automatically analyzes that to figure out where a quantum computer could speed up an algorithm. Right now, the company can identify potential speedups in code written for Matlab and Octave.

“The conventional approach to developing quantum applications is to explicitly specify the individual steps of a quantum algorithm, or to use a library where such explicit steps are specified. What makes our approach unique is that we construct quantum algorithms directly from conventional source code, automatically identifying places where it can be sped up,” explained Si-Hui Tan, the chief science officer at Horizon Quantum. “Everything that relates to quantum mechanics happens under-the-hood and on-the-fly in our compiler. This automation is what alleviates the need for any quantum knowledge. All our users have to do is to provide their program in a conventional programming language.”

At the same time, the company’s tools also make life for experienced quantum software developers easier by giving them the tools to write more succinct code that is also automatically optimized for the underlying quantum processors.

“We’re building a compiler that can go all the way from conventional, classical, code down to the control signals sent to the quantum hardware,” Quantum Horizon CEO Joe Fitzsimons told me in an email. “We’re still building, and we have a lot still to do, but we’ve demonstrated key parts of the technology, from identifying speedups in classical code down to characterising and mitigating errors in quantum processors. Our hope is that it will make quantum computing more easily accessible for the millions of software developers out there, and will allow us to leverage quantum computing in new domains (we specifically think about domains like geophysics for the energy sector and computational fluid dynamics for aerospace and automotive sectors).”

The company says it will use the new funding to help bring its technology to market and engage with its early customers.

Sramana Mitra: What do you think is going to happen? We are, on the one hand, over 30 million people in America that are unemployed. This could go up. At some point, it will come down. For the...

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Our inaugural TC Early Stage 2020 event takes place July 21-22, and we’re here to remind you to take advantage of early-bird savings while you still can. The price goes up on June 26, and that means you have just five days left to buy your ticket and keep $50 in your wallet.

We created TC Early Stage specifically for founders of early-stage startups — from pre-seed through Series A. Attendees can choose from more than 50 sessions that address vital issues that early founders wrestle with as they get their startups off the ground. Each session includes lively, interactive Q&A.

Experts spanning the startup spectrum will lead sessions on core topics ranging from fundraising, tech stack and growth marketing to term sheet construction, recruitment, product management and PR. You’ve got questions and you’ll get answers at Early Stage — along with actionable tips and advice that you can use to move your startup forward.

Here’s a small sample of the sessions you’ll find at Early Stage 2020 (check out the agenda here):

How to build a tech stack that can go the distance — The beautiful flower of your tech stack starts with a seed and a series of decisions. Which fertilizer will you use? How often should you water it? Where can you give it the right amount of sunlight? Every decision you make about your tech stack affects how it will hold up, and evolve, over time. Hear from HappyFunCorp’s co-founder and CEO Ben Schippers and CTO Jon Evans about how you can avoid regretting those decisions.

How to get your first yes — Fundraising can be a bit like dominoes. Once you get one investor on board, it’s much easier to bring others along for the ride. But getting that first “yes” can be the most difficult part. Hear the dos and don’ts of hyper-early-stage fundraising from Cyan Banister, seed-stage investor and partner at Founders Fund.

Here’s where you really need to pay attention. We’re limiting each session to 100 people, and it’s a first-come, first-serve situation. If you want to be in a session to get your burning questions answered, buy your ticket now to avoid getting shut out. On the upside, we’ll make videos of all the sessions available on demand after the event.

TC Early Stage takes place July 21-22, but your shot at an early-bird savings ends in just five days, on June 26. Buy your ticket, secure your $50 savings and get a leg up on moving your business forward!

Is your company interested in sponsoring TC Early Stage? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.

While we await a fresh IPO filing from heavily backed insurtech startup Lemonade, let’s talk a little more about its public offering.

Since our first dig into its S-1 filing, TechCrunch has spoken to a number of investors and operators in Lemonade’s space to find out if our initial read was off — were we being too generous or too kind to Lemonade after reading its somewhat complex financial results?

The Exchange is a daily look at startups and the private markets for Extra Crunch subscribers; use code EXCHANGE to get full access and take 25% off your subscription.

The short answer is not really, though there are some positive notes and themes worth highlighting. This morning, let’s ask three questions about Lemonade’s IPO filing that will help us understand what’s ahead for the SoftBank-backed unicorn.

Three questions

1. How quickly can Lemonade accelerate its rental insurance graduation rate?

On the theme of things that bode well for Lemonade is its ability to “graduate” customers from low-cost rental insurance to more lucrative products.

In its S-1 filing, Lemonade noted this fact early on. After stating that a “an entry-level $60 a year [rental] policy [corresponds] to $10,000 of possessions,” the company said that as its customers age, they tend to buy more insurance and sometimes swap rental plans for homeowner policies. Moving from the former to the latter is graduating in the company’s parlance.

If many customers moved from rental insurance to homeowner insurance while keeping Lemonade as their provider, the company could do very well, as illustrated by this section of its SEC filing:

Technology has dramatically changed over the last decade, and so has how we build and deliver enterprise software.

Ten years ago, “modern computing” was to rely on teams of network admins managing data centers, running one application per server, deploying monolithic services, through waterfall, manual releases managed by QA and release managers.

Today, we have multi and hybrid clouds, serverless services, in continuous integration, running infrastructure-as-code.

SaaS has grown from a nascent 2% of the $450B enterprise software market in 2009, to 23% in 2020 and crossed $100B in revenue. PaaS and IaaS revenue represent another $50B in revenue, expecting to double to $100B by 2022.

With 77% of the enterprise software market — over $350B in annual revenue — still on legacy and on-premise systems, modern SaaS, PaaS and IaaS eating at the legacy market alone can grow the market 3x-4x over the next decade.

As the shift to cloud accelerates across the platform and infrastructure layers, here are four trends starting to emerge that will change how we develop and deliver enterprise software for the next decade.

1. The move to “everything as code”

Companies are building more dynamic, multiplatform, complex infrastructures than ever. We see the “-aaS” of the application, data, runtime and virtualization layers. Modern architectures are forcing extensibility to work with any number of mixed and matched services.

Here’s another edition of “Dear Sophie,” the advice column that answers immigration-related questions about working at technology companies.

“Your questions are vital to the spread of knowledge that allows people all over the world to rise above borders and pursue their dreams,” says Sophie Alcorn, a Silicon Valley immigration attorney. “Whether you’re in people ops, a founder or seeking a job in Silicon Valley, I would love to answer your questions in my next column.”

“Dear Sophie” columns are accessible for Extra Crunch subscribers; use promo code ALCORN to purchase a one- or two-year subscription for 50% off.

Dear Sophie,

What in the world is happening with all this immigration breaking news and speculation about H-1Bs and J-1s and L-1s? Are we actually going to see changes?! What should I be doing to prepare?

— Immigration Doomsday Prepper

Dear Prepper,

It is times like these that I sometimes wish I did not have so many incredible, intelligent and informed clients who are capable of utilizing the news for breaking information. Some attorneys are advising everybody with visas to return to the United States ASAP. I don’t know if this will end up being required. As an attorney, it is increasingly important to remember that giving unsolicited advice (especially advice regarding things that have yet to happen) is scary and a huge gamble.

Rich is building an authentic tech company from London and while the company could have become a so-called Unicorn by loading up on liquidation preferences, they have chosen not to do so. Excellent...

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Embodying the tensions that cities across the world face as they wrestle with controlling a pandemic in dense, urban environments, Urban-X, the accelerator for technology startups focused on the problems cities face, has launched its eighth, fully remote, cohort.

While the accelerator program backed by the BMW-owned Mini Cooper automaker and the venture capital firm Urban Us is based in Brooklyn, it’s conducting its latest program virtually, with participating startups coming from Atlanta, Sydney, San Francisco, Boston, Burlington and Los Angeles, according to a statement.

“Long term, we are bullish on cities. I think that COVID and climate change share some things in common. If we think that COVID is disruptive, and not only a threat to economic livelihood but human life, climate change, is certainly a much larger threat,” said Micah Kotch, the managing director of Urban-X. “I think that cities have withstood pandemics previously. I think that we will be moving forward. The clear things that we need are really good political leadership. We need to heed science and to act quickly based on the best possible science and we need collective action. And that’s where I see a lot of overlap between COVID and climate.”

The latest batch of companies that Urban-X will work with includes:

Adiona: a machine learning-based service to optimize hourly workforces in logistics and supply chain management Aquagenuity: a company providing search information about water quality for consumersClimate Robotics: a manufacturer of robots that produce carbon-sequestering and soil-improving biocharMobilyze: the developer of a data analytics service for electric vehicle charging station site optimizationResonant Link: the creator of a wireless charging service to power robots and electric vehiclesXtelligent: a company rethinking traffic signal technology

“Not everyone can afford to move out to the suburbs and not everyone wants to. Cities are going to continue to be the epicenters of creativity and innovation,” said Kotch. “While these last three-and-a-half to four months have been a real challenge, particularly here in the U.S., we are deep believers in the vibrancy and necessity of cities.”

Later-stage investors think that the Urban-X thesis can create viable businesses, with about 85% of the accelerator’s companies going on to raise additional rounds of funding. Some of the most successful companies (in terms of capital raised) include Bowery Farming, Starcity, Mark43, One Concern, Future Motion, Skycatch, Seamlessdocs, Revivn, BRCK and Rachio.

“Technology, investment and mentorship have the power to advance the low carbon, resilient and high density future we need for our cities,” said Shaun Abrahamson, Urban-X Investment Committee and managing partner at Urban Us. “We are thrilled to have this new group of founders join Urban-X to build creative solutions that tackle climate change and the biggest issues facing our cities.”

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This is Equity Monday, our short-form week-starter in which we go over the weekend, look to the week ahead, talk about some neat funding rounds and dig into what is stuck on our minds.

This morning, here’s what we talked about:

Equity is on Twitter! You can follow us on @EquityPodThe COVID-19 pandemic hit a new, worse milestone over the weekend. What is ahead for the global economy is not clear, but the horizon is not clear for startups big and small.Many tech firms in the U.S. took Juneteenth off, limiting recent news, and with WWDC starting today there’s going to be something akin to a Cupertino takeover for the next few days. If you don’t care about Apple, you can just take some time off.Stocks are heading up this morning, with tech shares testing new records.Mexico’s Heartbest raised a $2 million Series A to help develop plant-based dairy replacements, and San Francisco’s Acquire raised a $6.4 million Series A to help with its customer success service. Blue Horizon Ventures and Base10 led the rounds, respectively.And, finally, the Hey-Apple drama reaches WWDC today. Apple has signaled that no changes are coming, but the company is in water that feels fractionally hotter with each passing day. What Apple can do to repair relations with developers who are more than a little worried about the megacorp isn’t clear. But for startups, the final results of this scrap could really matter.

And that is that. Equity is back Friday with more. Have a great week!

With more companies moving workers home, making sure your systems are up and running has become more important than ever. ServiceNow, which includes in its product catalog an IT Help Desk component, recognizes that help desks have been bombarded during the pandemic. To help stop configuration problems before they start, the company today acquired Sweagle, a configuration management startup based in Belgium.

The companies did not share the purchase price.

ServiceNow gets a couple of boosts in the deal. First of all, it gets the startup’s configuration management products, which it can incorporate into its own catalog, but it also gains the machine learning and DevOps knowledge of the company’s employees. (The company would not share the exact number of employees, but PitchBook pegs it at 15.)

RJ Jainendra, ServiceNow’s vice president and general manager of DevOps and IT Business Management, sees a company that has pioneered the IT configuration management automation space, and brings with it capabilities that can boost ServiceNow’s offerings. “With capabilities for configuration data management from Sweagle, we will empower DevOps teams to deliver application and infrastructure changes more rapidly while reducing risk,” Jainendra said in a statement.

ServiceNow claims that there can be as many as 50,000 different configuration elements in a single enterprise application. Sweagle has designed a configuration data management platform with machine learning underpinnings to help customers simplify and automate that complexity. Configuration errors can cause shutdowns, security issues and other serious problems for companies.

Sweagle was founded in 2017 and raised $4.05 million on a post-valuation of $11.88 million, according to PitchBook data.

The company is part of a growing pattern of early-stage startups being sucked up by larger companies during the pandemic, including VMware acquiring Ocatarine and Atlassian buying Halp in May and NetApp snagging Spot earlier this month.

This is the third acquisition for ServiceNow this year, all involving AI underpinnings. In January it bought Loom Systems and Passsage AI. The deal is expected to close in Q3 this year, according to ServiceNow.

Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE) recently reported a mixed second quarter that missed revenue estimates. It had a strong quarter for its Digital Media segment but its Advertising Cloud revenue was impacted by...

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HashiCorp is well known in the developer community for offering a slew of open-source tools to help build and manage modern applications. Today the company announced a new cloud platform and plans to eventually offer managed versions of those tools, starting with Consul, a tool for connecting and securing services across platforms.

HashiCorp CEO Dave McJannet says that the pandemic has accelerated demand for cloud infrastructure, and he sees a growing role for his company in helping to build cloud native applications. The company offers open-source and commercial versions of several popular tools, including Terraform, Consul, Vault and Packer, among others. These can run on premises or in the cloud, but McJannet says customers have been hankering for SaaS versions of these tools.

“Our customers have told us that it’s a huge challenge running a central shared service like Consul. It requires them to keep it up and running, and they have asked for something they can consume from us where we manage it for them,” McJannet told TechCrunch.

The company has been offering a managed version of Terraform for some time, but it has been quietly working on a cloud platform that could allow it to plug in each of the company’s products over time and offer managed services of all the products.

“What we are announcing today is what we call the HashiCorp Cloud Platform, and you can think of it as just a common chassis to allow us to run our products on any cloud. The first of those products that we’re making available is Consul on Amazon,” he said.

By offering the company’s products as a set of cloud services, it will lower the barrier to entry for customers who want to use their tooling, but don’t have the resources to run and manage on their own. That could potentially increase the company revenue over time. As McJannet pointed out, it’s a lot like what MongDB did with its managed Atlas database service, but for a wider set of products.

Last Fall, HashiCorp announced a $175 million investment on an impressive $5 billion valuation. It has 1,000 employees and is continuing to hire as demand for its product continues through the pandemic. McJannet was not discussing specific customer numbers, but said the customer count has doubled over the last year. As it builds out the new cloud services, and introduces more customers to its products, there’s a good chance that number will keep growing.

Sramana Mitra: What was the revenue level in 2014? What was the split between product and service? JB Kellogg: $20 million at that point. The mix was somewhere around 20% product and 80% services....

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